Congresswoman Giffords Shot in Tucson

[Tez3]

If we have programmes about 'vets' it's nice ones like All Creatures Great and Small, vets to us are the animal doctors lol! We have old or ex servicemen and womem, we don't call them vets, they might go round gelding like the vets do.

 

[granfire]

"Shell Shock" was NOT PTSD. "Shell Shock" is an immediate reaction to combat. Not all soldiers who experience "Shell Shock" get PTSD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_stress_reaction

Listen, I am not arguing semantics here. But it is ridiculous to believe that it is a new phenomenon.

 

[granfire]

If we have programmes about 'vets' it's nice ones like All Creatures Great and Small, vets to us are the animal doctors lol! We have old or ex servicemen and womem, we don't call them vets, they might go round gelding like the vets do.

rofl. Yes, the abbreviation mania.

 

[billc]

Point taken, from this point forward, Veterans. Will this translate okay to our friends across the pond.

 

[Archangel M]

It's not "semantics", it's definitions.

 

[Tez3]

Point taken, from this point forward, Veterans. Will this translate okay to our friends across the pond.

Probably best, our vets get quite shirty if upset lol. those nutcrackers are very painful.

 

[billc]

Is "nutcracker" a head butt or something else?

 

[Tez3]

Is "nutcracker" a head butt or something else?

No, and you are going to wish you hadn't asked....it's the tool that vets use to crush and remove an animal's testicles, named after the thingy you use to crack walnuts, almonds, hazel nuts. :uhyeah:

 

[granfire]

No, and you are going to wish you hadn't asked....it's the tool that vets use to crush and remove an animal's testicles, named after the thingy you use to crack walnuts, almonds, hazel nuts. :uhyeah:

and I think I heard all the male MT members wince and shudder right now!

 

[Tez3]

and I think I heard all the male MT members wince and shudder right now!

It will serve as a reminder to keep conversations polite

 

[billc]

A device like that would just break on some people, not to brag or anything. So I am not going to wince or shudder.

 

[5-0 Kenpo]

With the attitude here that we have to mental illness the military is having to work hard to get soliders to come forward if they do have PTSD, it's less a case of people exaggerating or even faking being ill more a case of people covering it up. The main sufferers of PTSD that have been identified at the moment are those who are amputees, sometimes triple and those who have been grieviously injured. Not all I add just some. The army has a more enlightened attitude these days, they don't shoot soldiers at dawn for 'cowardice' anymore, the soldiers have been briefed on what to look for and are given 'decompression' in Cyprus before they return to the UK from Afghan. They don't go on leave for three weeks on returning so there is a settling down time with families before they are out of the army's 'control' on leave.

I've heard comparisons with the soldiers from the last war with people saying they didn't have PTSD then so why now. One thing that American troops in the last war did was have to spend a long time travelling home, after leaving the battlefields of Europe the American troops had to board ships to return home, this gave them time to reflect, to talk and to generally 'heal' before going back into a normal life. By contrast the troops in Vietnam could be in the middle of a firefight in the morning and back home in the evening almost.

Our troops are all back from leave and at work next week, we are geared up for dealing with more fights, more incidents with alcohol etc. We'll see though. I wouldn't have wanted to cope with what some of these young lads have gone through out there and I believe it's really unfair to make judgements about PTSD in this instance. We have a dog handler who was diagnosed with it, he was in the army's Pioneer Corps and in Bosnia they had to dig up the mass graves of men, women and children massacred there for identification and evidence then they reburied them properly. They also had to deal with other atrocities inflicted on the civilian population. he doesn't consider himself ill but finds the nightmares and flashbacks hard to deal with. I also know some soldiers who were in the Falklands in the ships and landing craft that were bombed and burning who have similiar experiences.

There is a difference too between reactive depression which is a normal thing that would happen when losing a partner for example through death or unwanted divorce, or the loss of a child, that sort of experience and the clinical depression that descends without any life changing activity to account for it. The two are different, reactive depression will pass as the person grieves then gets themselves together, the clinical depression rarely passes without treatment or only does so when the chemical inbalances in the brain are addressed either naturally after a long time or with drugs.

Not only that, but the rotational nature of our modern services often means that one does not connect as well with the military personnel that one serves with, though this may be a lesser issue.

 

[Blade96]

No, and you are going to wish you hadn't asked....it's the tool that vets use to crush and remove an animal's testicles, named after the thingy you use to crack walnuts, almonds, hazel nuts. :uhyeah:

Ewww. I just flinched

 

[crushing]

According to media reports, Giffords is making excellent progress with her recovery. This is great news!

 

[Carol]

According to media reports, Giffords is making excellent progress with her recovery. This is great news!

:asian: Great news indeed. Thanks for posting that.